Recently, the ecological movement has become very cognizant of the pollution problems as caused by oil spills on bodies of water. Additionally, with today's transient mobile population and the call of the outdoors beckoning to campers, picnickers and the like, the ability to start fires easily and safely for heating or cooking purposes becomes important. Attendant with the population growth and the desire to curtail pollution of one type or another is the problem of disposing of refuse and other waste products from man's insatiable thirst for consumption.
All of the afore-alluded to problems are eased or solved by the invention herein in that a basic, initial composition is available which acts as an absorbent to clean up oil spills acting much like a desiccant or sponge. By the simple addition of a liquid hydrocarbon, such as kerosene or alcohol, a flowable combustible mixture is obtained which may be easily packaged into briquette-like shapes for utilization as a fire starter for camp fires, utilizing wood, charcoal or similar combustible materials. The same composition may have added to it, finely divided combustible material such as orange peels, corncobs and similar such material so as to provide a moldable, extrudable mixture which upon solidification becomes much like a wooden log or other conventional type of fuel whether it be organic or fossil.
While there has been some attempt in the prior art to overcome oil spill pollution problems and to provide a firestarter for starting barbecue or camp fires and attempts made to utilize what may be considered solid organic waste, none have been successful in meeting the challenges or needs of all three in one basic, primal composition or by providing an ultimate product which the invention herein disclosed achieves.
In all instances the compositions of this invention, regardless of ultimate end use and intermediate processing, take the form of a gel, gel-foam and/or gel state as will become apparent as the description proceeds herein.